THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST: Good Friday 2014

Jesus had a sleepless night and being falsely tried multiple times they found no wrong that he had done. Jesus was beaten with rods, spit upon, mocked, and humiliated. Jesus was rejected by the people of Israel who chose to have the murderous fiend Barabbas released instead of the true Son of God. Jesus was scoured. A scourging was when certain trained men would strike a man 39 times with

a whip that had long leather straps with bone and metal attached to the end. They called this whip the cat of nine tails. The cat of nine tails would latch into the flesh of the one beaten and then be pulled out with such force that many times a rib would coming flying out of the one being beaten. Jesus was beaten and scoured so horrifically that you wouldn’t have been able to recognize him. Mocking him, a purple robe was then placed on Jesus which was a sign of royalty. A crown of thorns was also shoved onto his head as they beat it down into his skull with reeds. As Jesus was being beaten, the Roman soldiers cried out, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Jesus was then made to carry his own cross to the place he was to be crucified. Unable to carry his cross, Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry it the rest of the way to Golgotha. Upon arriving at the place of the skull, Jesus was spread out on the cross and 9 inch nails were driven through the most sensitive nerve centers in his entire body- his hands and feet. The cross was then lifted up and placed into a whole in the ground, and Jesus’ body jarred as it slammed in. There he hung on the cross for a total of 6 hours in excruciating pain, enduring our punishment, drinking the cup of God’s wrath, paying for our sin. Jesus then cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished!” and the Temple veil was then ripped in two from top to bottom. Jesus died. Jesus was brutally murdered by us, but it was also for us. He died to forgive, love, serve, seek, save, and adopt us. On the cross he became our substitute, our sin was imputed to him, and he became cursed, which was more difficult to bear than even his physical suffering.